ZeBox: A novel non-intrusive continuous-use technology to trap and kill airborne microbes

Phadke, Kruttika S.; Madival, Deepak G.; Venkataraman, Janani; Kundu, Debosmita; Ramanujan, K. S.; Holla, Nisha; Arakeri, Jaywant; Tomar, Gaurav; Datta, Santanu; Ghatak, Arindam

Preventing nosocomial infection is a major unmet need of our times. Existing air decontamination technologies suffer from demerits such as toxicity of exposure, species specificity, noxious gas emission, environment-dependent performance and high power consumption. Here, we present a novel technology called “ZeBox” that transcends the conventional limitations and achieves high microbicidal efficiency. In ZeBox, a non-ionizing electric field extracts naturally charged microbes from flowing air and deposits them on engineered microbicidal surfaces. The surface’s three dimensional topography traps the microbes long enough for them to be inactivated. The electric field and chemical surfaces synergistically achieve rapid inactivation of a broad spectrum of microbes. ZeBox achieved near complete kill of airborne microbes in challenge tests (5-9 log reduction) and >90% efficiency in a fully functional stem cell research facility in the presence of humans. Thus, ZeBox fulfills the dire need for a real-time, continuous, safe, trap-and-kill air decontamination technology.